“If a guy has a list of people he’s not too keen on, no big deal; if a women does, then that is a big deal and then it becomes juicy,” said DeFrancesco Soto, a University of Texas professor. “This just conjures up memories of the gendered element of when Hillary was running.”

“Because she’s a woman running for political office — a very powerful political office — we just don’t know how to deal with gender yet with her,” she later added.

A new book details that following Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, aides compiled a “hit list” of politicians who did not endorse her, one version of which ranked them on a 1-through-7 scale based on their loyalty to her.